An assistant police inspector (API) from Vasai police station sought help from a man at an ATM in the area to link his Aadhaar and bank account details, but got robbed of Rs 39,000 within minutes, on Saturday. According to police sources, when API Vasant Ganpat Vayantande inserted his ATM card in the machine, it asked for his Aadhaar details. As he was not being able to understand how to go about it, he sought help from a person, who was in the queue behind him. The accused not only helped him enter his Aadhaar details, but also withdrew Rs 1,000 for him. However, at the time of returning the card to Vasant, he cleverly replaced it with a different card, which he had stolen from a person in Bhayander area the previous day.

CCTV footage shows the accused (circled) helping the victim to link his Aadhaar card at the ATM. Pic/Hanif Patel